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Practise trading cryptos with $50,000 virtual funds

How to trade cryptocurrencies

Trading cryptocurrencies is in many ways similar to forex trading. Our cryptocurrencies are quoted both in US Dollars and Euro allowing you to speculate on whether their value will increase or decrease in relation to the currency of your choice.

If you believe that the price of Bitcoin will rise against the US Dollar, you will place a buy order on BTC/USD. If the price goes up, you will make a profit based on the price movement and the size of your positions. If it goes down, your account will make a loss.

There are two main differences between trading forex and trading cryptos.
The crypto markets are young and highly volatile. That’s why risk management is of paramount importance for traders who wish to participate in this fast paced trading environment. The second key difference is that cryptocurrencies are immune to monetary inflation. The fiduciary currency can be printed by the government whenever they want. Cryptocurrencies on the other hand have pre-defined market caps.

Bitcoin dropped below one year low but this should not be a concern for those who are...Read More

Awards

ThinkMarkets is the proud winner of the year in the categories Best Forex Trading Experience & Best Forex Trading Innovation by the UK Forex Awards 2017.

What is Bitcoin?

Since the price of Bitcoin reached the $1,000 level in December 2013, the trading world started taking notice of the unique opportunities offered in the cryptocurrency markets. But what exactly is Bitcoin and how can traders benefit from the price swings?

Bitcoin is a digital currency created in 2009 by a mysterious person (or group of people) under the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Numerous attempts to verify the identity behind it have been unsuccessful. Bitcoin was designed with the use of an innovative technology called block chain. Although understanding the technology behind cryptocurrencies is challenging, what is important for traders to understand is who controls Bitcoin.

As opposed to traditional currencies issued by central banks, (i.e. US Dollar, Euro, Sterling etc), Bitcoin is not controlled or regulated by any authority. Bitcoin can be exchanged between users without the need for banks. The records of Bitcoin transactions are publicly available to all users of the network. The maximum number of Bitcoins that can be created was limited to 21 million by its creator.

What affects the price of Bitcoin?

Back in January 2010 the price of Bitcoin was below 10 cents. It wasn’t until 2013 that people started acknowledging Bitcoin as a mean of exchanging value and that’s when the price of a single Bitcoin broke above $100.

In 2017, Bitcoin saw its price soaring all the way to $7,000, with numerous jumps up and down in between. In May, for example, Bitcoin booked losses as high as $400 on a single day. And that’s exactly where trading comes into play.

This type of volatility is unheard of in the financial markets. But before you start trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, let’s take a look at some key factors that move the prices:

Supply and demand

Like with any other asset, the more people and businesses adopt it, the higher the demand. For cryptocurrencies with limited supply like Bitcoin, this dynamic pushes their price higher.

Media

The crypto market has captured the interest of both mainstream and social media. When influential figures voice their opinions, crypto prices can be impacted significantly.

Technology

Like with any software, any upgrade or change to the technological protocols used can cause substantial price fluctuations.

Government regulation
The arrival of cryptos has been met with varying government responses, from the heavy hand of South Korea that drove up value to the embrace by Japan on the other end of the spectrum.

Meet the top 10 cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin might be the most popular cryptocurrency. However, it is far from the only one. Here is an overview of the ten most popular cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum (ETH/USD & ETH/EUR)

Ethereum was proposed by a Russian programmer and went line in July 2015. The main difference between Bitcoin and ethereum is that BTC was designed to be a currency from the start.

Ethereum, on the other hand, was developed as a platform on which two entities could enter into a contract without a third party, via so-called smart contracts. Ethereum can be used as a currency and it can also represent virtual assets.

Litecoin (LTC/USD & LTC/EUR)

Founded by Google engineer Charlie Lee with the intention to create the “silver” to Bitcoin’s “gold", Litecoin entered the crypto scene as the twin of Bitcoin. Since launch in October 2011, Litecoin benefited fast from the broader interest in cryptocurrencies.

Ripple (XRP/USD & XRP/EUR)

Ripple was initially released in 2012 by a FinTech start-up with the aim to build on the Bitcoin approach, i.e. free people from the financial restrictions of the financial system, such as fees, charges for currency exchanges and processing delays.

Used by established financial institutions such as UBS, UniCredit and Santander, Ripple managed to gain the favour of banks and institutions as settlement infrastructure technology.

Dash (DASH/USD)
American software developer, Evan Duffield, created dash in 2015 with the aim to build on Bitcoin’s feature set and create the most user-friendly cryptocurrency in the world with focus on enhancing anonymity for the user.

Monero (XMR/USD)

Monero was launched in April 2014 and fluctuated heavily from around 25 cents in January 2015 to about $60 in May 2017. The reason it attracted the interest of investors fast is the ability to provide users a high degree of anonymity.

ZCash (ZEC/USD)

ZCash is another privacy oriented cryptocurrency created by American developer Zooko Wilcox. ZCash experienced very strong demand on its first day of trading, but soon retracted. Going forward supply and demand will help the price of ZCash to find equilibrium.

Neo (NEO/USD)

Neo, also known as “Chinese Ethereum” or “Ethereum’s killer” is the first cryptocurrency that was launched in China. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, NEO cannot be divided into fractions. The smallest unit is one.

OmiseGo (OMG/USD)

OmiseGo was created with the intention to make transactions and currency exchange cheaper, irrespective of whether you are using cryptocurrencies or traditional currency.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH/USD)

Bitcoin Cash was born in August 2017 as a result of Bitcoin’s hard fork. Although it is hard to explain a hard fork in simple terms, think of it as an attempt to solve Bitcoin’s scalability issue, i.e. the fact that as the number of users increases, the technology used by the Bitcoin network needs to get upgraded.

Iota (IOTA/USD)

Iota uses a completely different technology to Bitcoin. Its main innovation is that its network increases as the number of users increases and it also enables transactions without fees.

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